Hold My Cutter
From Padres Fan to Pirates Pitcher: Steven Brault Unplugged
What happens when a talented pitcher balances his love for baseball and music? Join us as we uncover the fascinating journey of Steven Brault, a former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and current Sportsnet Pittsburgh analyst, at Burn by Rocky Patel near PNC Park. With co-host Michael McKenry, we explore Steven’s unique personality, his gratitude for Michael's mentorship, and the camaraderie they’ve built. Steven walks us through his Southern California roots, his enduring loyalty to the San Diego Padres, and his journey from being drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of Regis University to his career with the Pirates.
Experience the nostalgic highs and gritty lows of the minor league grind as Steven recounts his path from a Division II college to the professional leagues, all while nurturing his passion for music. He opens up about the life-changing advice from his father and music director, the excitement and nerve-wracking moments of draft day, and the dedication required to rise through the ranks. Steven’s vivid recollections bring to life the experiences and challenges of minor league life, painting a picture of long bus rides, subpar accommodations, and the undying passion that fuels baseball dreams.
Finally, we explore the evolution of baseball training, the impact of analytics, and the ongoing debate over the replay system and safety rules. Steven shares candid insights into the pressures of maintaining peak performance and the influence of advanced technology on the game. We reminisce about the blend of old-school and new-school baseball, celebrate the sport's human elements, and tease future discussions on Steven’s singing talents and tattoos. Don’t miss this engaging episode filled with personal stories, baseball nostalgia, and thought-provoking conversations.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
What happens when a talented pitcher balances his love for baseball and music? Join us as we uncover the fascinating journey of Steven Brault, a former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and current Sportsnet Pittsburgh analyst, at Burn by Rocky Patel near PNC Park. With co-host Michael McKenry, we explore Steven’s unique personality, his gratitude for Michael's mentorship, and the camaraderie they’ve built. Steven walks us through his Southern California roots, his enduring loyalty to the San Diego Padres, and his journey from being drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of Regis University to his career with the Pirates.
Experience the nostalgic highs and gritty lows of the minor league grind as Steven recounts his path from a Division II college to the professional leagues, all while nurturing his passion for music. He opens up about the life-changing advice from his father and music director, the excitement and nerve-wracking moments of draft day, and the dedication required to rise through the ranks. Steven’s vivid recollections bring to life the experiences and challenges of minor league life, painting a picture of long bus rides, subpar accommodations, and the undying passion that fuels baseball dreams.
Finally, we explore the evolution of baseball training, the impact of analytics, and the ongoing debate over the replay system and safety rules. Steven shares candid insights into the pressures of maintaining peak performance and the influence of advanced technology on the game. We reminisce about the blend of old-school and new-school baseball, celebrate the sport's human elements, and tease future discussions on Steven’s singing talents and tattoos. Don’t miss this engaging episode filled with personal stories, baseball nostalgia, and thought-provoking conversations.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
And to burn, by Rocky Patel, just a few blocks from PNC Park on the North Shore. And this is Hold my Cutter and this edition. Once again our guest. He decides which one we're going to go with. And our featured smoke is, of course, the white label by Rocky. You can't go wrong with it. And of course, our guest is Stephen Brault, former Pirate left-handed pitcher, but he's in Pittsburgh now. He's one of the analysts on Sportsnet Pittsburgh pre and post-game with the Fort Michael McHenry. Michael, before we ask Stephen this question, you knew Stephen, of course, before you started working with him on the air this year, before we even talked to Stephen. Is there a word or words to describe this unique individual here? Who's our special guest?
Speaker 2:No, they're still working out in the Webster Dictionary.
Speaker 1:And I'll describe this young buck here the indescribable one he is, I'll take indescribable.
Speaker 3:Indescribable, yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 2:It could be good or bad. I feel bad if it's one word yeah, I'm a teammate, teammate baby, how's it been working with him?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's been awesome, honestly.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe let me ask you how would you describe him?
Speaker 2:But I would call him eclectic is the word that I would use. I'll take that word.
Speaker 3:Michael is a jack of all trades. It's actually amazing. We've been doing this for a little over a month now and I've already learned so much, and most of it I attribute to you. I don't know if we've had this conversation, but it seriously has been extremely helpful. Like every time that I have any questions or anything, I run to Michael and he's happy to help. It's been awesome. But that is the only nice thing I'm going to say this entire time. Now we're back to normal, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good, steven Brault, I'll pay you that money later. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of the San Diego area. He goes and attends college at Regis University near Denver. He gets drafted by the Baltimore Orioles. The Pirates trade for him a couple years later. Trivia question you know the guy that the Pirates traded to Baltimore to get Steven Brault? I don't. I don't Travis Snyder. Did you know Travis at all? I played with Travis. Oh, then you did. No, I was here when yeah, okay well so there you go.
Speaker 3:When he was here Me, I was the guy. Well, I was the second guy. I was the PTBNL of that trade Player, to be named later Steven. Tarpley oh, that's right even I was the second. You know who. They acquired texas right. They traded.
Speaker 1:Uh no, they trade into the yankees four. I don't remember that's. That's a tease for later on the show we're gonna have that answer.
Speaker 2:There's a buck bucket of rocks, oh yeah so, steven, tell us, uh, about your journey.
Speaker 1:Tell us about being a huge baseball fan growing up in socal.
Speaker 3:Yeah padres, Padres. I'm a Padres fan, big Padres fan. I still am. I still follow the Padres a good amount. All my buddies back in San Diego we have a group chat that we talk about the Padres all the time and what's going on with them. But you know, I grew up loving baseball. My dad got me into it. My dad was the biggest baseball fan on the planet. My dad still plays baseball at now, 62 years old yeah it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:But you know he was, he wasn't like, he wasn't a baseball player, wasn't professional player or anything. He just he just loves the game and I learned everything that I know about baseball from him and is the fundamentals of baseball and how it's supposed to be played. And you know, I grew up watching Tony Gwynn. You know he was my favorite player, and talk about liking somebody who just plays the game the right way. Tony Gwynn was the guy you know. But then, yeah, I went to Division II college in Colorado from San Diego, because I wanted to pursue music and baseball at the same time and no big colleges would let me do that. So I went to Division II and it worked out for me. I got drafted. I kind of just, kind of I just kept pushing everything back right. Just let somebody else make the decision for me. What am I? Am I going to do music? Am I going to play baseball? And then I got drafted. So I was like, all right, I'll go play baseball and maybe I'll figure out music later. And I mean it's the fact that it just continued as long as it did.
Speaker 3:I never thought I would get to that point. You know I got. I never thought that I would play in the major leagues for, you know, parts of seven years. I never, I never imagined that it was. It couldn't have gone any better. It was absolutely my dream that I got to live through and achieve and I mean I'm the happiest. I'm the happiest ex-baseball player I think there is man I I loved. Every second of my career ended before I wanted it to, but I got to enjoy it and I made sure that I took advantage of it when I was playing.
Speaker 1:So I don't regret a thing I think you told me, did you meet tony gwynn somewhere along the line? Oh yeah, oh yeah, a few times, because he was the head coach at san diego state.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know. So I met him a few times there when I was a kid, but also one time I was in arizona watching them play against the diamondbacks and my brother and I were watching batting practice. My brother was supposed to be protecting me while I was reading the program tony good was taking batting practice, oh no, hit a line drive in foul territory and it hit me on the knee, oh.
Speaker 3:And some other guy grabbed the ball ran away. I'm like a 10 year old kid crying. Some other guy grabbed the ball and ran away. I'm like a 10-year-old kid crying.
Speaker 2:Some other guy takes the ball Cheer on you guy, I know right.
Speaker 3:But then I saw Tony Gwynn at a basketball game at San Diego State and my dad, you know, coached me into going up to him and saying, hey, you hit a ball off my knee and he was really nice about it. You know, he was great. I love Tony.
Speaker 1:Guedes, how many years after that did that occur?
Speaker 3:Oh no, that was like a week later.
Speaker 1:A week later, I think, I still had the mark on my knee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, wow, yeah, yeah. So I tried to do it. We went to autograph signings when I was a kid, you know. We were big Padres fans. We'd tailgate four games with our motorhome. We did it all, man.
Speaker 2:We were big fans.
Speaker 3:My dad took me out of school a few times to go see Padres games. We drove from San Diego to LA or San Diego to Arizona on a Sunday to go watch Padres games. We watched the Padres in Colorado, we watched them in Philly.
Speaker 1:I mean, we were big Padres fans, that's awesome Was your brother as good an athlete as you.
Speaker 3:I have three brothers. I have three brothers.
Speaker 1:You have to be the best athlete in the family.
Speaker 3:I was the only professional athlete, but I would actually say my brother Phillip, who played volleyball through college. He was a very late bloomer in his size but now he's way bigger than me and he plays slow-pitch softball now and I've never seen anybody hit a ball slow-pitch softball as far as he can Come on. It's crazy and he'd do it right-handed and left-handed. It is very impressive.
Speaker 1:Wow, what was regis university? Like I just saw somebody recently no, no somebody went to regis high school anyway like kelly and regis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, regis, we always everybody went to regis. We were in, we were in, uh, pueblo colorado one time, and there was a guy in the applebees that we were at as a team, you know, and and we yeah, and he goes where.
Speaker 2:that's where you eat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he goes where are you guys from and they're like Regis University. And his response was what's a Regis? I'll never get that. But no, it was a tiny school. We had 1,200 undergrad students, so my biggest class was like 31 people and that was my science lab. You know like that was. I took a lot of music classes. I had classes that it was just me. You know, music lessons. Wait what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just me and a professor. That's called homeschool. Yeah, and that's what it felt like. Yeah, it's so cool.
Speaker 3:So it was, uh, it was a great experience. You get, you know, I got really close. I still talk to a lot of my college buddies. I just got married this off season. A lot of them were at my you know, my, my wedding, and I'm still close to him. I was just talking to multiple of my college friends today. You guys will love this. I haven't told you this yet. Robbie is McCoskey is now working for the Texas Rangers. They're in San Francisco right now. My buddy that I went to college with knows the Texas Rangers radio guy and so he went out with them. They remembered each other because my college teammate went to my major league debut where Robbie interviewed my parents, so then they went and drank together after that Come on, yeah, so I got a picture yesterday from Robbie in Spokaski, that's nuts.
Speaker 3:With my buddy Charlie.
Speaker 1:Holy cow, it's like what. That is crazy. What kind of a baseball team would Regis have?
Speaker 3:Not a great one. Yeah, well, you know, it's just, it means that way. I'll put it this way. My sophomore year we got to regionals for the first time in school history and we were pretty good. But we were in a hotel that a bunch of the other teams were in and everybody else is, like you know, doing stuff and hanging out. Teams were in and everybody else is, like you know, doing stuff and hanging out, and we took over the entire lobby because we had like three guys or six guys playing three different games of chess. We had like four guys studying I was playing video games. The three my buddies are playing super smash bros on the nintendo 64. We had guys doing a jigsaw puzzle on the floor in the lobby of the hotel. It was just a bunch of nerds who also happened to play baseball. But there's like six guys on my team that are now cpas and you know it's just so if it broke out into debate, you guys win oh yeah, we would have won, but you were the only guy that came out as a pro baseball player, anybody else
Speaker 3:there's one other guy that was there the year before me who got signed as a catcher. His name is Zach Blakely, but I don't think he got drafted and he definitely never made it to the major leagues. So I am the only player in Regis history to make it to the major leagues. Good for you. But I believe Bart Starr went to Regis University, so they have a football history even though they don't have a football team anymore. That's crazy, regis.
Speaker 2:They have a football history even though they don't have a football team anymore. That's crazy. It's a cool place. Why there? I know it's because you wanted to pursue two dreams at the same time, but there's a lot of places you could have done that. You leave California, go to Colorado. If you know anything about Colorado, it's hard to pitch there it is. Why did you choose there?
Speaker 3:It was the only place I'll just be honest with you. It was the only place that was going to let me do music play baseball, hit and pitch and they gave me full tuition scholarship.
Speaker 1:Good enough for you to make a deal right there.
Speaker 3:They literally gave me everything. If I didn't accept that, I would be spitting in the face of everybody who wanted to go to college and play baseball. You know what I mean? It was literally the perfect opportunity and I couldn't be happier that I went. Man, well, that was a great answer. It's just the truth. Yeah, that's awesome. There were division one schools I was talking to you that were like yeah, we'll give you a little bit of scholarship and you can register as a freshman and maybe not do music pitcher and I was like it sounds like the worst thing ever.
Speaker 2:I want to go play baseball I don't want to go sit on the bench.
Speaker 3:So I went to a school where I was going to play. You know, and that's it worked out for me. That's what I suggest to kids like high school age guys all the time Go somewhere where you're going to play. Yeah, dude you, anybody. If you're good, you'll get found. No doubt. There's video everywhere, there's scouts everywhere. If you're good enough, somebody will find you. So go somewhere where you're going to actually be able and play. You know what I mean. That's what I did.
Speaker 2:Where you don't want to leave too.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:They're not all just jumping in and out of the portal.
Speaker 3:That sounds terrible, dude, it does right.
Speaker 2:Like I get calls all the time. It's so sad. It's like go where you want to be and the fact that you had something to study, I think, draws light. To go somewhere you want to be something. Yeah, you get to play the sport you love.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, it's perfect, it was perfect. I missed a lot of baseball practices for rehearsals and performances which they understood right. Yeah, they understood going in.
Speaker 3:I met with the music director and the head coach when I went on my visit. We had a little sit down and they explained to me how it would work. They had already worked it out. It was really cool. It was just like everything I could ever want. When I went to that game that I threw all the fastballs in Denver, my music director from Regis university was there. You know like we had a great relationship.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's in the back going like this yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would have been so great. He's like oh yeah, another heater, yeah yeah yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Keep it in four-four time. You're a little offbeat.
Speaker 1:When you went there, did you have any thoughts that you could end up being a pro baseball player, let alone a major leaguer?
Speaker 3:Absolutely not. When I went to Regis, I basically had come to the conclusion that I was going to play baseball for four more years and then I was going to continue. I was going to continue, I was going to pursue music. That really was what I had in my mind. I actually, you know, just to be open about things I had kind of a breakdown my sophomore year because I had a surgery on my right shoulder in baseball and I wasn't able to play for a while. And I I called my dad and was like I think I want to quit baseball, I think I just want to do music and only pursue music. And my dad was basically like, look, no matter what, you're not, if you don't get drafted, you're not going to be playing baseball, you know, competitively, after two years from now anyway. So just you know, live out those two years. Man, Like you might as well live out those two years. And probably the best piece of advice I've ever gotten to- be honest with you, dad.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, shout out was there.
Speaker 1:Also, though, didn't you at some point have to make a tough call when it came to deciding between music and baseball, though?
Speaker 3:not really, you didn't. I got lucky enough that I got drafted after my junior year, right, yeah, so when I got drafted, I I had a talk, you know I'd already talked with my music director. It was like, hey, if I get drafted I'm going to take it, because most likely I'm not going to get that opportunity again being in a small division to school. And you know, and he was, he was, we had a great meeting. He was like man, you can do music your whole life. You know, you can only do baseball for a finite amount of time. Your body eventually is going to break down, which it did. And you know, and that's kind of like, once again, the influences that I had in my life.
Speaker 3:He didn't make it hard for me or make it, you know, make me feel bad about leaving. It was. He was very, very cool as Dr Davenport. He was very, very. You know, davenport, he was very, very understanding of the situation. Baseball is what you love. You love music too. If baseball works out, great, if it doesn't come back, finish your degree in music and then go pursue that instead. And so I ran with it, man.
Speaker 1:Can you tell us what draft day was like?
Speaker 3:I can, and where you were and all that. Yeah. So I got on day two of the draft, I got called by the Yankees and the Yankees told me would you consider taking significantly below slot money to go in the fifth round? And I said yes. Why did you say yes, it's the fifth round. It is the fifth round, exactly, and I had no agent or anything.
Speaker 1:What if they said you know, seventh, eighth, tenth? I would have said yes, oh, okay, good for you.
Speaker 3:And they ended up not taking me. I found out later it was because somebody had put me on the injury board on accident because.
Speaker 3:I had hurt my right shoulder the year before and I had gotten labrum surgery on my right shoulder and labrum surgery on my right shoulder and somebody for some reason read it as labrum surgery on my throwing arm. So they put me on the injury board and didn't take me. Wow, and then I didn't get drafted that day. And then the next day I got drafted by the Orioles in the 11th round in like I think it was like the 13th pick or something. And so the third day is not, it wasn't broadcast on TV, it was on the internet. So I literally I was in minnesota with my host family, I was playing northwoods league baseball and my dad was there, my brother philip was there, and I literally plugged in my hgmi to my computer. I plugged in the hgmi to the tv and it went with the 13th pick of the 11th round, the Baltimore Orioles select Stephen Brault. Stop.
Speaker 3:And it took me by surprise because they never called me. I had no idea that they even wanted to draft me Out of the blue the. Orioles, completely out of the blue right when I hooked up, and so we looked at each other like wait, that was my name, right, and you know the guys that are there. I don't remember who the analysts were that were talking about it, but they're like, yeah, 11-round pick left-hander out of Regis University Scrambling to find out where Regis is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3:And then we just lost our minds. But yeah, I was at my host family's house in Minnesota when I was playing the Northwoods League out there.
Speaker 1:You said, though, though, that it was a surprise. Surprise about the orioles, but what other teams could have wouldn't have surprised?
Speaker 2:that's crazy. Yeah, I think it's crazy when the team that drafted you, oh same way I talked to rocky once but it's nuts yeah, and what the crazy thing is, I didn't talk.
Speaker 3:I I think I talked to the scout. His name is john gillette. I talked to him at some point, right, but it was never like we're thinking about taking you in this round or anything like that.
Speaker 1:But were there other teams that would not have surprised you as much? Yes, for example the White Sox.
Speaker 3:Okay, I talked to the White Sox a good amount. I talked to the Reds a good amount the one team, I think. When it came down to it, I think I talked to 29 teams. I think I filled out scouting reports for 29 teams and I it's not. It's not the orioles. I did fill out scouting report for the orioles.
Speaker 3:I never filled it out for the padres how my hometown team never wanted me yeah, but uh wow but I, you know, I uh, it was really weird, because then you get drafted and nobody called me, so now I'm just sitting there like, no, I have no idea how any of this works. I didn't even know that there were short season teams. So I was like, so do I just join a team halfway through the season?
Speaker 1:I didn't either I didn't know, I didn't know how that works.
Speaker 3:yeah. So so I, you know, I find out, like you know, two hours later I get a call from a number I don't know and I answer the phone and it's the orioles and they, you know, they give me an offer and obviously I'm not going to like negotiate or anything Like I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah sure.
Speaker 3:So I just said absolutely, let's do it. And then they flew me out the next day to Florida.
Speaker 1:You said that the Yankees basically made a mistake. Yeah, Thought it was your throwing shoulder. Did that shoulder? Did that mean other teams thought the same thing.
Speaker 3:Probably. Yeah, that's why it took that many rounds. Yeah, it was really interesting because, you know, I didn't know how professional baseball worked. I don't have, I'm not a guy who was lucky enough to have family that played professional baseball. You didn't either, did you, and so everything is new. Man, you go out to Florida and the first person I met in the airport, his name is Connor Bierfeld. He was one of my best men. At my wedding this year. I convinced him to move out to San Diego. We lived together in the off seasons for multiple years. Good for you. He was the first person I met in the Tampa airport. I walked out to him because he was carrying a baseball glove. He looked like my age, no kidding.
Speaker 1:Maybe he got drafted by the orioles?
Speaker 2:yeah, sure enough yeah, isn't that crazy baseball. You said you didn't know anything about short season. I knew nothing. They told me I was going to tri-cities I was like yes, right down the road. They're like no, washington. I'm like what. What do you mean? Washington? Washington state?
Speaker 1:I'm like the state like that, one way up, where is way yeah?
Speaker 2:So we flew all the way across the country, just like you. I think it's funny. He said he never played on the West Coast. And I forget to play on the East Coast. Played one year with Nashville, but other than that everything was on the West Coast. It's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got drafted. So you know, just to be honest with you, grew up watching the Padres, right. I knew West Coast baseball and National League baseball more so. And then I got drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, which is a team that I could not have cared any less about. I didn't know anything about the Orioles, right, and so I just knew all right. I guess I'm wearing orange and black now.
Speaker 1:Also, didn't you think you might be able to pitch and hit? No, no, no I knew.
Speaker 3:No, no, before the draft. Yeah, so actually the first scouting report that you fill out like your information and you do like a personality test and all that stuff, the first one I ever did was for the White Sox and it was as an outfielder and that was the only one I ever did as an outfielder. After that it was all pitching. So I knew I was going to be a pitcher. Yeah, I was also. Just to be honest, I kind of really tore it up my junior year as a pitcher in Denver and that was like if you can hit in Colorado, it's not that much of a surprise, but if you can pitch in Colorado, then people take notice so when you got traded a couple years later to the Pirates, a National League club back then, way back then- many many years ago, pitchers actually also hit.
Speaker 1:They played the entire game of baseball.
Speaker 2:It's weird, you don't say Crazy Nine guys on the field.
Speaker 1:They fielded, they pitched.
Speaker 2:They had double switches then too, right. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Anyhow. So when you got traded to the pirates, did anything go through your mind like, hey, I might be able to? No, it's the first thing that went through my mind. Oh, really, oh yeah. And and I, you know, when I was with the orioles, there was a time where I I this is kind of toot my own horn a little bit, but we were, uh, you know, we were, they were taking batting practice when they have a curveball machine on the field and it was just like six guys out there and the, the hitting coach was actually the first base coach for the philadelphia phillies now, paco figueroa he was.
Speaker 3:He was, you know, loading the curveball machine and connor, my buddy's, like hey, steven apparently could really hit in college. I hadn't hit in like three months or four months at this point, whatever it was. And, and you know, steven really hit in college. We should let him hit off the machine. And he's like, no, we're not going to get him hurt, you know, whatever. And they convinced him to let me and first pitch off the curveball machine. I went deep.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, no way, yeah. What was his reaction?
Speaker 3:Everybody just laughed. Wow, I mean it was just one of those things where it was like, hey, all right, it's cool. I guess it's not totally gone. But when I got traded to the Pirates then I had to look up like okay, when do pitchers?
Speaker 2:hit in the minor leagues.
Speaker 3:And so in AA you start hitting the minor leagues. If it's two National League teams, that's how it worked.
Speaker 1:Below that, never yeah. And so my career average in the minor leagues, I believe is around 400.
Speaker 3:I hit really well in the minor leagues, and then, when we got to the big leagues, that was something that I tried to nurse as much as possible. They knew I could hit, and I told them I'd be willing to hit if they wanted me to, and so Clint Hurdle started using me as a pinch hitter every now, and now and then.
Speaker 1:And I loved it, man, I. I loved every second of it. I wanted to be a, I wanted to be a position player. So bad was there. Is there any time that you actually were, uh, with the Pirates at all? Ever for an inning or two, didn't you?
Speaker 3:no, I never got to play in the outfield it happened.
Speaker 1:I got close a lot of times.
Speaker 3:so I don't know if you remember this, but in between 2019 and 2020, there was actually articles written about because I had talked with Clint Hurdle and Neil Huntington about the fact that I was going to come back the next year as kind of a Lorenzen guy, that's right when I was going to be a starter slash, reliever, slash, you know, fifth, sixth outfielder, and I was going to hit more often. And then, you know, then clint and neil got, you know, let go, and then covet happened and I had an interview where, luckily, clint is a good friend of mine, has good sense of humor about this, because they asked me about that and I thought it'd be funny to say you know, yeah, I think that's actually why Clint got fired is because that article came out, that's great.
Speaker 3:And he texted me like like two days later with a quote from that article and I was like I'm so sorry, he's like no, no, I thought it was hilarious, don't worry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah he's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's a great guy still very close to them. I saw him, uh, this off season. I went to a alumni event in Vegas and the winter meetings in Nashville and I got to hang out with Clint Hurdle both times. Every time I get to hang out with Clint Hurdle it's great. He's helped me in every aspect. Moving into this next level, next career that I'm doing, I love Clint. He's a great guy. He loves helping people.
Speaker 1:I know that he talks about a servant's heart. I've never seen anybody so good with children and people that are fighting through different issues in their lives. He's something else we can get into that Managers over the years were here, of course, with Stephen Brault, and when you came to the Pirates, your first team was which First team?
Speaker 3:was Bradenton Marauders.
Speaker 1:And you were there for how long Do you remember?
Speaker 3:They were high A at the time.
Speaker 3:Well actually so I played with the Orioles. I got up to high A for like the last week I think I got two starts in high A with the Orioles in my first full season and then I got traded to the Pirates and I started in high A. I was there for half the season. I got moved up to double A. I was there for half the season and then I went to the Fall League that year and then they started me the next year in triple A and I made my big league debut halfway through the season. So when I got to the Pirates they shot me through the system really quick. I'm very appreciative that I got to the Pirates.
Speaker 1:They shot me through the system really quick.
Speaker 3:I'm very appreciative that I got to go to the Pirates? No, not at all. I mean, I played low A my whole first season with the Orioles. I did pretty well, but I was like, all right, it's going to take me a long time to get the big leagues, that's fine, I'll grind through it. I love it. It didn't matter to me, I loved the bus rides. Tell me if you had this feeling, tell me if you ever had this realization. Okay, I was sitting on a bus, we were about to take a 14-hour bus ride to Rome, georgia. Okay, and we even had to share. You know, it wasn't like you had your own row, like it was me next to another guy for 14 hours, and right before we took off, I thought to myself. And right before we took off, I thought to myself I have literally nothing else to do other than pitch. Every five days. This bus ride doesn't seem that bad. I don't have to do an essay, I don't have to worry about a final, I have to study for.
Speaker 2:My whole life was baseball and everything unlocked.
Speaker 3:For me, none of that mattered to me. I enjoyed every second of it because why not? We stayed in the crappiest hotels, I mean the worst you could find in a horrible towns, no offense. But we went to jamestown, new york. Did you ever play in jamestown? I don't think I did. No, because they were the new york pen league. Yeah, the pen. Yeah, I didn't play the. They were the. They were the Pirates affiliate. For a little bit I played against the Pirates in Jamestown and we stayed at a Red Roof in there. That it was the worst hotel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was the worst hotel I've ever been in by far.
Speaker 3:I've had a lot of friends you know, chad Kuhl and Trevor Williams, a lot of guys that have stayed in that same hotel, that we have swapped stories about how horrible that hotel is. Everybody has terrible experiences there and it just made me like, man, this is the minor leagues man, you've got to grind through it. You've got to grind through it. And I got traded to the Pirates and all of a sudden it didn't seem like it was a grind anymore. They just shot me through. I was doing well and they allowed me to continue moving up. It was a really cool experience.
Speaker 1:Worst hotel in the minor leagues. Do you have one?
Speaker 2:Worst town. There's a lot of them. Not one that stood out because I'm kind of like him I hate to rip the towns.
Speaker 1:That's not fair. It was one of those things. You were so appreciative of where you were.
Speaker 2:You know, like I didn't ever think. Do you guys feel that way? Did most players feel that way if they didn't?
Speaker 3:they didn't make it most of the time. No, seriously, yeah, most of the guys who hated minor leagues don't make it through that's interesting really yeah and I would say the lower levels you can speak to.
Speaker 2:This too is like some of my best memories are in the lower levels. I mean because, like, you're there and it still feels like a group of guys that are fighting for the same goal, like we wanted to win. We obviously some guys were post-projects, some guys weren't. But, like, as you move up, as you get closer, it gets more individualized and a lot of things change, a lot of things are shifting all the time. That lower level, I think there's something special about it and I think what you're saying. At a bad hotel you can kind of swap stories, joke around about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we had a great time. I saw a co-coach this big once. You know I'll never forget it. It was in Arizona. First apartment I stayed in was an ex-drug dealer and they smelled like marijuana everywhere. I'm like I wonder where they hid it. Maybe under the couch, because we went on the couch. It's like cheech and chong popped out.
Speaker 3:it's wild like those are the coolest memories, the whole, the whole experience of the minor leagues that there's I mean there's memories that I'll have forever, just because you're put into situations you never thought you'd be in. You know you're, and the best part of the lower minor leagues is everybody is the same age. You know you're all 21 to 24 years old at the max and you're all going through the same thing. You're trying to push your way up to the major leagues and it's not about hoping your other teammates fail. You just use that as competition. You hope everybody does well, but I just do the best, right, and that's. That's like the way you have to look at it.
Speaker 3:You know I want my friends to do great and I want to do better than them. You know what I mean. Yeah, absolutely, and and that was. It's such a cool mentality and when you move up it's it's bittersweet because you know you're going to join a new team, you're going to have to make all new friends. You're not going to know anybody. It's a weird experience and, man, it's really cool. I loved my minor league experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1:What do you think about baseball trying to make all these improvements though over the years? For the minor leagues, is that a good thing. Couldn't be happier about it, you know you really okay, oh yeah, yeah, but part of the experience is the, the rough bus rides, the bad hotels, the bad locker rooms, the bad.
Speaker 2:What were we talking with hayley about? Right pay, pay. What was your first paycheck after taxes? 250. That's why you don't live in california, folks, but at the end of the day, that's crazy. Yeah, 200 bucks, right, yeah, I mean, I think mine was like 800, I mean 900, whatever it was it was.
Speaker 3:It was like you know I okay, you can look it up, so it doesn't matter. I signed for $75,000, so after taxes, you clear about half of that right, and so that was the only money I had, and it was. It felt like I had plenty of money to do anything, but at the same time, every two weeks you get a check for less than $500. And then I would go.
Speaker 1:So I worked at Target in offseason to supplement my income and I made more money working at Target in offseason than I did during the season. You sound like the players that came before 19, I don't know what year. I'd say pre-1980, forever, for almost 100 years. That's what players did. Yeah, he was like the last round.
Speaker 2:I was the old school, so a devil's advocate.
Speaker 1:What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3:Because people deserve a livable wage for a full-time job.
Speaker 1:And that's what you say. Baseball is Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Especially now. It never stops now, ronnie. But people say it's a game, baseball's a game.
Speaker 1:It is, but you can't stop now you are lucky and so fortunate that you have that athleticism, that God-given talent, so fortunate that you could play a kid's game and yeah, like many that came before you guys, yeah, you had to get a job to supplement your income during the offseason.
Speaker 2:And there's a lot of good that comes out of that. People would say, but the one problem is now is there really isn't an offseason? I mean, every year I was in minor league baseball, I went and played somewhere and then we had a winter development. But now they have hitting camp, they have speed bad speed training camp.
Speaker 1:They have pitch design camp and you don't get paid for that, devil's Advocate would say. Is that a good thing? I?
Speaker 2:don't know Our players better because of that?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm. I think it's a lot of boxes.
Speaker 3:They are better because I will say unashamedly baseball players are the best they've ever been.
Speaker 1:Because of the offseason stuff.
Speaker 3:Because it is now required. Think about this I had a lot of guys that I played with that would not throw a baseball in the offseason until they got to spring training.
Speaker 2:That was normal.
Speaker 3:That used to be the norm, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you come to spring training ready now. That is not the case anymore.
Speaker 3:Now you have to come into spring training fully, 100%, ready to go, otherwise you're never going to make a team. You're not, because they expect you from day one to be able to perform, and that is different than it ever was. Well, now.
Speaker 1:Is that good for baseball? I'm going to push back on that All right, because an established player already has a team made. You're talking about guys that are fighting for a job and most you know Waukee's always said this forever and I don't know if I've talked to you guys or you Ford about it and he's so right that every year going into spring training, teams will say about competition at certain positions, we don't know yet. They know for the most part what that roster is like. I agree.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what there is not a single minor leaguer that is in baseball right now that takes the offseason off. Not one, Not one.
Speaker 2:Because you can't, because you will not make a team when you get spring training and to be honest, if you, as you played longer, the way you supplement your income is you wouldn't play in the offseason. So, like you didn't have an offseason anyways, you wouldn't play. So the reality of it is now it's just shifted where the organization's taking more control and they're able to develop these guys a little bit different. But yeah, he's right, and the coolest part I want you to touch on is I guess that's the difference.
Speaker 1:Going back to that is that you're talking about again going through the minor leagues, which makes sense, and that you have to. Yeah, you're not talking about being an established player in the big leagues.
Speaker 2:And I got the very minimal taste of this. So, like 16, 17, the shift started. Analytics really took off, pitch design took off, matrix took off. You were right in the middle of it, so you got to see both sides in both extremes. Explain that a little bit, because part of the reason you're not pitching anymore is because the extreme on the other side, because you were throwing shed yeah, I had to change.
Speaker 3:They wanted me to throw harder, and that's, and that's fine. It was how things were working and I did. I adjusted how I was pitching so that I could throw harder, and I did and then got hurt. And I don't say I don't think that it means it's not a fault of anybody's, it's just how the game is run. Now is that they want velocity and I and I get it.
Speaker 3:But when I was coming up, it was the old fashioned baseball, right, old style of baseball. And then by the time I finished with baseball, it is fully the new way of baseball. So, yeah, I got to experience that full transition period and for a while there it was weird because, like here's an example Maybe you don't know this when I was in the minor leagues, the day after I pitched I had to go up in the stands to radar gun our pitcher for that day, so we could get velocity and you had. So we could get velocity and you had a chart right and you had a chart which filled out, the chart which pitchers did for a long, long time.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize you were still doing it.
Speaker 3:The day after that you would be the camera guy where you would go to the whatever. Whoever was pitching, you'd go to their open side. So if a variety's pitching, you go to the third base side and you you set up a camera and at the beginning of every inning you record it. You have to set it up so that it gets their mechanics from the open side and record it and then at the end of every inning you turn off record, you turn the camera off so the battery doesn't die. That was your job was to do the camera. Now they don't have to do things like that because every minor league stadium has track man camera now they don't have to do things like that, because every minor league stadium has track man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the first time I threw in front of a track man and it told me what my spin rate was. It told me that my spin rate sucked and I was like, oh, that's a bummer. I was hoping I was gonna say that I was good, you know, but it's, it's a weird. It was a weird transition that everybody had to learn. So all the guys that are my age, that are now long-time big leaguers, some of my best friends Trevor Williams, jansen, tyone, joe Musgrove, those guys they all went through it too and they were able to adjust to what the analytics said they needed to do to be better, and it's a really cool process. It's just like it's just different. It's just different's just different.
Speaker 1:Well, they said, in general, you had to throw harder, but, in their minds, in order to get people out. In other words, just keep getting guys out, don't worry about how throw.
Speaker 3:That that's not part of the equation my analytics said that my fastball 93 and above was like a 70 grade fastball. 93 and above was like a 70-grade fastball, which is very, very high, and below that it was like a 55-grade fastball, which is still good. But I could be an elite pitcher if I could consistently throw over 93 miles an hour. So that was why. So you want to play up to? Hey, steven, you could be a fine major league pitcher or you could bring up your velo and be an elite major league pitcher, that's so what am I going?
Speaker 1:to do? I'm obviously going to try to be an elite major. They put this little carrot out in front of you.
Speaker 2:You're going to take it line there yeah, but they put a carrot out in front of you. So what are you going to do? You're going to run and try to grab that carrot. Yeah, what do? What are you? Am I going to?
Speaker 3:at the time. Now I look back and I'm like man. I could have pitched for 12 years as a left-handed reliever, throwing 88 miles an hour Right exactly, so that's what's better. But if it had worked out and nobody could hit me, I could have signed for $150 million. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So million dollars. You know what I mean. So it's like at the time. It's obvious, it's interesting that basically machines are telling that story, not that that's you know a friend of mine and you know him too, for it made this suggestion.
Speaker 2:I think I brought this up I love this, actually love it with all the injuries and everything else that's going on.
Speaker 1:He suggested this Beginning in 2025, baseball dictates throughout the country, worldwide, maybe. No more radar guns, computers, no more, nothing to show velocity, spin rate, and they're all gone from every ballpark. If a scout is seen with a radar gun or whatever might be track man, whatever that team is fine, millions of dollars, never to be seen again, that scout or or that organization. What an idea that would be so I love that now no more no more guns. We don't know how fast he's throwing, but look, steven brault, he's getting guys out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he looks like he's throwing hard.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, that fastball plays Boy, that's a. I'll bet you, if we had a gun it might not show 95, 96, but the batters, the way they're reacting, it sure looks like it's mid to high 90s. Yeah, and that is part of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would love that I've actually had that exact conversation with friends of mine before, really, because I would love that I've actually had that exact conversation with friends of mine before, because I think it's such a cool concept. Yeah, where, if you but I, I see I take it a step further, my step further is yes let's go.
Speaker 1:I don't want replays oh, you're without you and I have the same boat robot umpires oh I don't want challenges, because I think it takes away the human element of the game.
Speaker 3:And call me old-fashioned or whatever you want. I understand why you do it, because now we're playing. The reason it's happening okay is because it's the same thing with the NFL. The cameras are too good now right. Instant replay is so immediate and we have super slow-mo on everything that you know exactly if it was a ball or a strike. You know exactly if it was a fair or foul ball, right. So none of these are really judgment calls anymore, which in old-timey baseball it was. It was what did the umpires see? If there was a replay? The camera was so grainy that you couldn't really see it anyway.
Speaker 1:It's why the game is the greatest game of all, because it's 162 games long, because those mistakes even out and the better teams rise to the top. That's why baseball wasn't meant for this. Now, again, we're just shooting the stuff here the hypotheticals go away too.
Speaker 1:Because we're never going back to it. But that was my gripe about replay when it first started. You know, in sports, and in baseball specifically, players can make mistakes, coaches can make mistakes, managers can make mistakes, fans can make mistakes, announcers can make mistakes. The only individuals in that stadium or ballpark that is not allowed to make a mistake is the official, the umpire. Everything has to be perfect. It's part of the wrong of society. Nobody can be wrong anymore.
Speaker 3:So here's my other thing that I have said for a very long time they should get rid of the strike zone on TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's not real. Those days are gone, but you're right.
Speaker 3:It's not real and also it takes away. It makes fans think they know better than the umpire. Being an umpire is so hard Major League umpire, especially with how hard people are throwing nowadays and how much everything moves. Being an umpire especially with how hard people are throwing nowadays and how much everything moves, being an umpire is really, really hard. Okay, so I give them all the credit in the world, but with that strike zone on TV, it makes you think, oh, how do you not see that? Of course, how do you get that wrong?
Speaker 2:So I'm going to take it a step further.
Speaker 1:since we're taking it a little further, I say we have a fan game and they umpire and they hit.
Speaker 2:And they pitch so they can see it. Sometimes I think it's very difficult to understand how hard the game is and how good the umpires really are, especially with the stuff today. What we were watching today we had 99 mile an hour bowling ball, sinkers with a knuckle curveball that just fell off the roof at 88.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't remember an 88-mile-an-hour knuckleball pitcher anywhere. Knuckle curve, I did not see at 88 when I played.
Speaker 3:That's a different animal, Do you remember? This is really big for me. Jake Peavy 2007 won the Cy Young, maybe 2006. Sounds?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 3:One of those years he was a starting pitcher throwing 94 miles an hour, and it was crazy yeah everybody's like wow, yes, a starting pitcher consistently throwing 94, 95, even got up to 96 a few times. That's insane. And now, if you're right-handed and you don't throw 96, good luck getting a consistent job. No doubt, and it's so. It's changed that much in in not that long of time and everything has to catch up. But now we expect umpires to be able to be able to see how, you know, did that technically clip the corner?
Speaker 1:on an 88 mile an hour knuckle curve. But it started with with way back before that. It started with foul balls and home runs. How could that be a home run? The Don Decker play in what 85, the World Series of the Cardinals, the Armando Galarraga and frankly, I thought that was the beginning. That's when it was started and Michael McHenry was involved in the play that, I think, finally turned the corner.
Speaker 1:Baseball said and we're as much to blame, blame, I blame myself, because we all went crazy that night, but that was a human reaction right of the, the play at the plate that went against the pirates, the 19 inning game in atlanta and that you know started in motion for the implementation of of full-blown replay hey, 2008 colorado rockies beat the padres on a walk-off.
Speaker 2:Never forget it. I will never forget it. Was that Brian Giles? No it was.
Speaker 1:Matt Holliday scoring.
Speaker 3:What was on Jimmy Carroll Jamie?
Speaker 2:Carroll, jamie Carroll. He comes around third, slides in big head and all gets that hand in.
Speaker 1:I think it was Giles' throw he wasn't even within six inches of home plate.
Speaker 2:It was magical, though, that was like their 24th win in a row. So everybody in Denver is going bonkers. Everybody in San Diego is like I hate baseball Baseball sucks.
Speaker 1:The general question is does that defend replay?
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I agree Because I think it's part of the human element for mistakes to be?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely, if I think you brought it you, you brought it up perfectly. Everybody else is human and makes mistakes that are involved with the game. So why? Why do we have to robot the umpires then? Why don't we robot the players so that they're perfect, right? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:it's it's well. That's that's where it's going, though.
Speaker 3:Players are becoming robotic, you're right this is true, it's not as fun, but I have sorry I have to say. Jamie carroll was a coach with the pirates for a while. Yeah love the guy every time I saw him I brought up that play.
Speaker 1:Every time he said umpire called him safe that's great, um, you know we've discussed this before. One of the great moments, a human moment, was the armando galarraga perfect game taken away in detroit. Yeah, the very next day, of course, people were up in arms with jim joyce, the, that he was the first base umpire that day. The next day, the genius of then manager the tigers, jim leland, going into the hall of fame of course, was to tell galarraga I want you to take this lineup card to home blade today. Awesome. And that moment when jim joyce, the umpire, who made that call and admitted later I made a mistake, and that moment when they shared a tearful I mean their tears streaming down Jim Joyce's face. What an unbelievable moment for all of us to see. Yep, and we take that away. It's so wrong.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's so wrong, but you know that's the way it's going to be and it's just the way that the replay's gone. I mean the fact that you have the bench coach running over and like and has put a timeout on it. Come on, like, either throw the flag or get rid of it, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, take away the phone calls.
Speaker 3:I've said that since the beginning.
Speaker 2:Take the phone away no phone calls.
Speaker 3:Since the beginning of it I've said they should have to challenge on the field, because it doesn't make any sense that you expect the umpires to be able to make calls right there on the field but then you give the team the benefit of the doubt, to watch it on replay 16 times in super slow-mo before you ask for the challenge. That doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:And you know baseball's proven with replay how right umpires are the vast majority of the time.
Speaker 2:They lean on their side too, which I respect. They always lean on their side, and I love that because you're protecting your their side too, which I respect. They always lean on their side. I love that because you're protecting your guys and, too, like yeah.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? They lean on their side.
Speaker 3:Well, they have a call, stands right.
Speaker 3:So therefore they have 66% of the time, no matter what the call is going to be on the umpire's side, because it's either call confirmed or call stands. There's three choices. Two of them are on the side of the umpire, one of them is against, and I'm not saying that's wrong, I'm agreeing with him. But they should give the umpire the benefit of the doubt. If there's not clear and incontrovertible evidence that they were wrong, then you can't change it and I agree with him. I like that. I like that.
Speaker 1:We were at the replay center this past year and I got a whole new appreciation for the angles they see, because when we're doing a game on TV, it frustrates me that I think wait a second, oh okay, but no, they see so many different angles and they're able to do the split screen and different angles and they're able to do the split screen and different angles and and they're really good at it.
Speaker 3:I'm not a proponent of replay, but they do it right and they uh, I think it was last year they started that they were allowed to time it up together because they they now agree like they've officially decided that the timing of the
Speaker 3:cameras, they can get perfectly together. So now they can look at two angles at the same time in the replay booth, which they don't necessarily show on tv, yeah, but in which would be cool if they did. Yeah, by the way, but in in the replay booth they're allowed to watch these two different angles, because maybe one you can only see his hand touching and the other you can only see the tag. Yes, right but they can put these two together at the exact same millisecond and then they can tell which one happened first.
Speaker 1:That's again something that we, when we're watching our games, are unaware of, but that's going on back in New York.
Speaker 3:Also, I have one more gripe about that. Yeah, yeah, my least favorite thing about replay is the millisecond the foot comes off the bag when a guy slides into a base and they still have the tag on them and they get called out, because that, to me, is like it's not baseball. It's not the reason the replay rule was made. The guy was safe.
Speaker 1:He beat the throw. There You're preaching to the choir.
Speaker 3:Maybe the natural human body motion took his foot off the base for a half a second, but he was safe.
Speaker 1:You're supposed to be attached to the bag like a magnet. It's impossible.
Speaker 2:It is a Papa John's pizza box now it is very large, it's easier to be attached.
Speaker 3:It's not any taller, though.
Speaker 2:Well, it was always tall for me. But since we're talking about it, let's talk about not being able to break up double plays. You even talked about just the other day the obstruction and, I think, walking through. I miss that awesome breakup of double play now. Now we have guys trying to, you know, just run through. There's always a consequence to every rule they put in and I miss the times when you know I'm a rookie and I'm like watching marcus shiles put on soccer shin guards getting ready for spring training, because he's no, he knows he's to get those cleats coming in hot. I think it's part of the game. But they also had the neighborhood play and all those other things. I miss it. What?
Speaker 3:do they do? We actually saw that today. I don't know if you remember that Alika Williams turned double play today. Oh, he hops and he was standing on second and whoever was sliding into second. It was a good slide. It wasn't illegal. He slid right on the base. But alika was standing there on the base and the guy slid in and alika ended up falling over top of him because he took him out. Alika still made the throw and they got the double play. But like that, I agree there is. There is room for hard play. Yeah, I don't believe there is room for intentionally injuring people play. I feel like more guys have gotten hurt. I don't think. Think so, there's no way.
Speaker 2:Trying to avoid contact. I feel like guys have gotten hurt, Maybe not more, but not that different. Not that different. Yeah, I would say, if you looked at it evenly, you'd say man.
Speaker 3:Okay, what about the Chase Utley play, though, in New York? Remember that Chase Utley just goes insane and takes out whoever was playing second base in the double play in New York, and the whole world lost their minds because, Chase Utley. It was a playoff game against the Mets, yeah because Chase Utley crushed him Right. And see, that's one of the reasons they literally call it the Buster Posey rule at home.
Speaker 1:Okay, because he got destroyed at home. The Buster Posey rule drives me insane. By the way, they call that bona fide slide thing now the chase-up rule. They don't call it the Jung-Ho-Gung rule because Jung-Ho-Gung got destroyed in the season you know why it wasn't the playoffs?
Speaker 2:Because it was a pirate player, yep.
Speaker 1:And the same is true with the Posey rule. They don't call it the Coy Hill rule because several years beforehand, you remember Ty Wigginton? Yep, oh yeah, he destroyed, he's a dump truck. The Diamondbacks destroyed him at home plate Collision Probably. I mean Quahog came back, but probably wasn't the same player, but only when Buster Posey was involved did they change it when it happens to a high profile. We've got to save the stars, which also bothers me.
Speaker 2:But there's also Lane. The Udley was out of the lane. Yeah, he was, if you look at it. I mean Jung Ho Gong. He's in the lane and I get it. But if you're going to talk about people getting hurt, you've got to talk about both. But Buster Posey's reaching for the ball. He's vulnerable. Nobody talks about Cousins. He was up the line and he didn't have the ball. But like nothing, if Buster changed absolutely nothing, that rule still would not help him, it's true.
Speaker 3:Does that?
Speaker 1:make sense he's not blocking the plate.
Speaker 2:Cousins came up the line, hit him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that wouldn't have changed anything. It wouldn't have changed anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that rule doesn't even help, buster Posey, I've always said that for the most part, players can avoid injury, like catchers.
Speaker 1:For the most part they can avoid the collision. They don't have to do it Now. If they want to get an out and block the plate, okay, you're at your own risk, but they don't have to.
Speaker 2:I think, as a fan, you have to miss that excitement right Like a play at the plate. Now like you have guys going, hmm, hmm, they're pulling back.
Speaker 1:I'm like no, get in front of the plate.
Speaker 2:So now there's no reason.
Speaker 3:Like they always said, you only slide feet first into home. Right, that's what they always said. Now, there's no reason that you should ever slide feet first into home, because now your home plate is flush with the ground, yep, and it is natural that your foot is slightly above the ground. Yeah, and so you'll get called out because your foot technically didn't touch home plate, so how? Are they sliding? So you have to slide this way. What's?
Speaker 1:safer. Somebody's going to get hurt.
Speaker 2:Not wrong. They make these rules without talking to the players. A lot of times I really believe that but they don't actually take the player's consideration in, Because when you really start thinking about it I mean think about O'Neal Cruz he's avoiding contact last year trying to at least, and what happens? He blows up his leg. Who else got hurt, Marcano?
Speaker 1:To compete to Marcano?
Speaker 2:Yeah, trying to avoid contact Gregory Polanco. Yeah, it's wild when you think about it, because it's just like the same thing as NFL and NCAA when you try to change how they've always tackled. It makes things difficult because your brain is going to be like, oh, no move, and it's like, uh-oh, my knee went that way, it's a problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people get angry at times, people like me. You know, old man, get off your lawn, type stuff. When it comes to this, I'm not griping because it's still the greatest game. Yeah, I gripe, I complain because I love the game so much. And yeah, everything was always better. When you were younger, growing up, christmas was better now than you know. You watch kids now. Christmas was better in my time. You might feel that way now. When you were growing up as a kid. It was always better.
Speaker 2:Well, now we're Santa Claus Brownie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big difference.
Speaker 3:Santa's real right? Yes, of course.
Speaker 2:But you're buying all the presents now. Brownie, it was way better when I was a kid, the point being that the game's still great.
Speaker 1:It's just different eras and replays here to stay. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 2:What's cool about it with both of you guys. What I love about working with Brault is we can have a conversation. Both love the old school aspect, but also love the new school aspect. Yeah, it's just the fact that, like, yeah, I do miss certain things and I wish you know, maybe two weeks out of the year, they just said all right, all roles are dead. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But tell me you're not impressed watching Jose Soriano throw 100 mile an hour sinkers as a starting pitcher, 100%, it's incredible. Yeah, not getting the fifth Incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, yeah, not getting through the fifth, it was amazing. Two Tommy Johns. He was in our system, we had him, we ruled five, he was a rule five guy, and then he got hurt again he, we ruled five, he was a rule five guy, and then he got hurt again. He had a second Tommy John after we had him.
Speaker 2:I mean he's still throwing 100.
Speaker 1:And he's throwing 100, 101.
Speaker 2:And how easy it is.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, it's crazy, it's crazy. We have a lot to get to. Can we ask you to stick around for a little bit? I can stick around for a little bit. Okay, we've got to. Okay, we're gonna talk about singing, tattoos, everything with stephen brault on hold my cutter.